1. Field of the Invention
Many telephone numbers and electronic mail addresses have recently been able to be stored in an address book of a mobile phone terminal as the capacity of a storage medium such as a flash memory has increased. In addition, information other than the telephone number and the electronic mail address can be stored, too. For example, addresses or dates of birth can be stored as items of memo. Other than that, some mobile phone terminals can store facial portraits.
As quantity of data that can be stored in an address book of a mobile phone terminal has increased, a risk when the mobile phone terminal is lost or stolen has also increased. If such an accident occurs, personal information in the address book may be stolen or abused by a third party.
In addition, since the protection of personal information has become a big concern for public, a public office or a company who lends mobile phone terminals to employees is also required to take countermeasures against leakage of information.
Therefore, a service as described in Non-Patent Document 1 is proposed, When a user has lost his or her mobile phone terminal or it has been stolen, the user gets in touch with a center by using his or her personal computer at home or the like to inform the center about that. Then, the center sends instructions to erase data to the mobile phone terminal. When the mobile phone terminal receives the instructions, it activates an application so as to erase data.
Patent document 1: JP-A-2003-332978
Non-Patent Document 1: “Erase stored data remotely for protecting leakage of information when your mobile phone is lost”, Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., Web site, Apr. 14, 2005, URL: http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/free/TIS/keitai/20050412/158911/, searched on Jan. 4, 2006
However, if a mobile phone terminal is out of the service area or if the power of the mobile phone terminal is turned off, the mobile phone terminal cannot receive the instructions from the center. Therefore, even if the method described in Non-Patent Document 1 is used, data stored in the address book cannot be erased.
In addition, a method described in Patent Document 1 is proposed. Although this method can improve security in transmitting and receiving data between communication devices, it cannot prevent data stored in a mobile phone terminal from being stolen.
It is an object of the present invention to manage the address book that is used in a mobile phone terminal or the like more safely than the conventional method.
2. Disclosure of the Invention
A portable terminal device according to one aspect of the present invention includes an address book storing portion that stores an address book indicating names and telephone numbers or electronic mail addresses of other parties of communication, a concealed character string generating portion that generates a concealed character string in which a part or a whole of characters of the names and the telephone numbers or the electronic mail addresses of the other parties of communication is concealed, and a display portion that displays, in a first display mode, a name and a telephone number or an electronic mail address of other party of communication designated by a user based on the address book without concealing characters of the name and the telephone number or the electronic mail address of the other party of communication designated by the user, and that displays, in a second display mode, the name and the telephone number or the electronic mail address of the other party of communication designated by the user as the concealed character string.
An address book transfer device according to another aspect of the present invention is an address book transfer device for transferring an address book stored in a first portable terminal device to a second portable terminal device, the address book transfer device. The address book transfer device includes an address book input portion that enters the address book from the first portable terminal device, a concealed address book generating portion that generates a concealed address book by concealing a part of characters indicated in the entered address book, and an address book output portion that delivers the generated concealed address book and an address book from which the concealed address book is generated to the second portable terminal device.
According to the present invention, an address book that is used in a mobile phone terminal or the like can be managed more safely than the conventional method.